Who Would've Guessed
by HermioneK
Summary: Two new maids enter the mysterious Hitachiin manor. Can they handle the terrible two? The dynamic duo? Who would've guessed what happened next?
1. Where do I sign up?

"Boys! This is the third maid this week that's quit!" shrieked an understandably angry Yuzuha. "What am I going to do with you!"

The sixteen-year old boys simply give her a guilty look.

"Oh no!" she shouted. "You've pulled that on me before! I'm not falling for it again!" she threw up her hands and turned away so as to not be swayed by her own sons' charming looks. "You know what? I don't have time for this! How about you boys pick you own goddamn maid! Kaoru," she said, obviously pointing at the wrong twin, "why don't you put an ad up in the newspaper? And Hikaru," she added, still pointing at the wrong twin, "you can ask around at school. Have fun." Yuzuha walked out of the room without a second glance at her sons.

The two gingers turned to look at each other, high-fiving the second their neglectful mother left the room. They had gotten exactly what they had wanted.

"Kendall, get your fat ass up and read this!" shouted Laura, her brash roommate.

"Mahhhh," grumbled Kendall, still trying to sleep. "AAAH!" she screamed once she was finally awake and noticed a newspaper ungracefully held in front of her nose. "What the hell, Laura? Gerroff me!" her roommate was straddling her, obviously really wanting her to read whatever was on the crinkled newspaper.

Kendall snatched it out of her roommate's hands and read it at her usual speedy rate while sitting on the edge of the bed and running her hand through her cropped, mangled hair.

"2 maids…" she read aloud, then caught herself. "What is this, S&M? Why the hell would I want to be a maid?"

"KEEP READING!" shouted Laura, thrusting the paper ungraciously into her friend's face.

"Full time…watch 2 red-headed, mischievous twins…must be patient," Kendall snorted. "Well, obviously you wouldn't want this job, Laura-"

"SHUDDUP, KENDALL!"

"Yeah, yeah," said Kendall as she kept on reading. "Nanny…one hundred dollars an hour and weekends off…" her eyes continued down the page, but she suddenly cut herself off, doing a double take. "ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS AN HOUR AND WEEKENDS OFF! That's…that's…." Kendall struggled to count on her fingers.

"Twelve hundred dollars a DAY!" cried her math-loving friend.

"That's-"

"SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS A WEEK!"

Both girls squealed in delight at their new-found fortune.

"KEEP READING!" clamored Laura. "IT GETS BETTER!"

Kendall returned her eyes to the paper, doubtful as to how it could get better. "Board and food will be provided-woah, free food? I can see why you're interested, Laura."

"Don't be so potsy!' cried Laura, retaking possession of the now very crinkled newspaper. Oh how she loved her olden-day insults. "Don't you see what this means? FREE food and board, one hundred dollars an hour, and weekends off, all just to babysit some kids? We can finally pay off our student loans!"

Both girls' eyes traveled to a dusty, undisturbed corner of their apartment where student debt loans slowly collected. Art, after all, was an expensive area of study.

"Plus we get to work together!"

"Where do I sign up?" asked Kendall, flashing her 'I'm-up-to-no-good' grin.


	2. Flashback

**Thank you so much for all my reviews! Thank you!**

**Flashback time:**

_The first time Kendall and Laura met:_

Laura's POV:

It was finally the end of another average ninth grade school day. The second best time of the day, in my opinion. (The best time being when you first come home from school, and you have the whole night ahead of you, just waiting for you to procrastinate your homework and chores.) I was feeling hungry (as usual), and the fact that my locker was next to the vending machine only made matters worse. As I stared jealously, something caught my eye. It was a wallet, but it had something strange on it. Peering closer, I noticed that it was L from Death Note.

"Oh my gosh!" I cried, startling the owner of the wallet. "I love your wallet!" I gave her a high-five, then carried on to my bus.

I didn't even know the girl's name yet.

I was rushing through the hall, stuffing my things in my locker. I mean, I was just a ninth grader in a Mail Jeevas Halloween costume, trying to get to her next class on time. I was subconsciously aware of everyone else's costumes. With my head down, I shuffled my binders into a more comfortable position. Suddenly, I noticed a large pink dress with a girl roughly my height running down the hallway. I had just started to watch Kuroshitsuji, and thought that the dress looked exactly like Ciel's. Excited, and deciding that my Literature class could wait, because anime is more important, I ran up to the girl.

"Hey!" I said breathlessly. "Is that Ciel's dress from Black Butler?"

"Yeah!" she said then bumbled down the hallway.

I didn't even know the girl's name yet.

Kendall's POV:

It was lunchtime, I was starving, and the line was so long, I couldn't even see the end of it. I was tapping my wallet—which had a wonderfully sexy picture of L from Death Note on it—absentmindedly against my hand, staring off into space and daydreaming as usual. I gave up and headed for the vending machine, opting for a quick, junk-food-filled lunch. It was then that a voice cut through the aggravating din of noisy students—"Is that L from Death Note?"

I whipped around and grinned at the girl, a blonde one about my age. "Yeah, it is," I replied, a bit taken off-guard by the fact that there was another fan of Death Note at this school.

"Awesome!" she replied, but then the crowd heading for the lunchroom swept her away.

I didn't even know her name yet.

Halloween: the one day of the year when people can cosplay in public without being stared at—and the one day my school allowed us to wear costumes to school. I was proudly wearing my Ciel cosplay dress, a light pink one with an abundance of ruffles and lace, accompanied by my grey wig. Once again, I was rushing down the hall toward the lunchroom, battling a sea of people taller than me.

That same voice reappeared. "Is that a Ciel dress from Black Butler?"

I turned and grinned at the source of the voice—that same girl, wearing a Matt cosplay. "Yeah, it is!" This time, I got swept up in the stampede, and swept away.

I didn't even know her name yet.


	3. Interview

**Thank you to all who reviewed! And all your questions about Kendall's and Laura's back stories will be answered in this chapter! :D**

**Those awkward moments when you close out of the internet, then realize you still needed it… *shakes head***

Chapter 3

Present-Day

Hitachiin Manor

Hikaru sat fidgeting on the couch. "When will they _get_ here?" he impatiently asked. The prospective new maids were, after all, ten minutes late.

"Hikaru, please chill your pants. I'm sure they'll be here any minute," said his identical twin rationally and calmy. 

The words had not yet finished exiting his mouth when there was a lout _THUMP_ of something hitting a wall and a _CLANG _of a doorbell ringing. There was also some excited giggling and panting.

Kaoru and Hikaru both identically raised their eyebrows before standing up from their precarious perches on their couch and running to the door. Since their mansion was so big, they were also slightly out of breath when they arrived.

Hikaru opened the door and said "Bitches, you're ten minutes late. What the hell happened?"

"HIKARU!" Kaoru screeched, his voice cracking in admonition. "That's no way to treat someone!"

"But Hikaru is quite right," said Kendall, curtsying respectfully. "We are late after all."

"Yeah, well, that doesn't give him the right to treat us like an asshole!" shouted Laura, stomping her foot and crossing her arms. "Like I'm sooooooo sure YOU'VE never made a mistake, Hikaru."

Hikaru turned his head at Laura and raised his eyebrow. At this rate, his eyebrows would be very buff by the end of the day from the major work out they received.

"So?" questioned Kaoru. "You are late after all. What happened?"

"Laura had to eat!" shouted Kendall at the same time that Laura shouted "Kendall found change on the ground!"

"So you're late because one of you had to eat and the other one found change? Why wouldn't you just leave it on the ground?" chorused the twins.

"Because not ALL of us are rich!" chorused the prospective maids in retaliation.

The twins again turned to each other and laughed. They had a silent conversation with their eyes that only moms and dads, best friends, and siblings seem to have.

_These are DEFINITELY the maids we want, _said Hikaru.

_Well, let's not rush into things, _replied Kaoru. _We should at least interview them._

"Right this way ladies," said Hikaru, leading them into their oversized mansion.

"May I take your coats?" asked Kaoru.

"No thanks," said Laura, coolly, keeping her coat with her.

"Yes, thank you!" said an eager Kendall.

Kaoru gave Laura a strange look, but said nothing.

"So, how old are you?" asked Kaoru, as all four of them sat on couches; the twins on one and the two girls on the other.

"We're both seventeen," said Laura, answering for both girls. "Our birthdays are both June ninth."

Hikaru and Kaoru both shared another surprised look, but said nothing.

"We're both in our second year of college. I skipped second grade, and Laura here skipped third grade," Kendall furthered the story.

"What are you girls majoring in?" asked Hikaru.

"Art," they chorused.

"Well, more precisely, I'M majoring in photography and movie directing, and SHE'S majoring in illustration," Laura said. It appeared as if they had told this story before.

"What about your family?" asked Hikaru.

Laura gave Kendall an uncomfortable look that seemed to say, _You take this one._

Kendall obliged, and took a deep breath. "Well, ever since I was in high school, I knew I wanted to go to Japan and become a manga artist. Laura here never knew really what she wanted to do, just knew that she liked art a lot. She liked the idea of living in New York, or pretty much anywhere but Wisconsin, which is where we used to live, but her parents didn't really agree. So when Laura said she was going to Japan with me, they kicked her out. She hasn't heard from them since."

Laura crossed her arms. "What about you guys?"

Kaoru gave Hikaru a look that seemed to say, _You take this one._

Hikaru obliged, and took a deep breath. "Our Mom is a top-notch fashion designer, and our father is a computer software designer. We don't see either of them very often. We raised each other. Because if we don't care for each other, no one will."

Kendall and Laura both shared a look with each other while Hikaru crossed his arms over his chest.

"Have any other siblings?" asked Laura.

Hikaru shot her a look that said, _Bitch, do you THINK I have any other siblings?_

Laura recoiled. "Well I guess that answers my question…."

"Do you guys have any siblings?" asked Hikaru.

"She has an older brother named Keagan, and a bitchy older sister named Kara-" Laura answered for Kendall.

"She has a younger brother named Christian," Kendall answered for Laura. "But we've been friends for so long that he's my younger brother too."

"Well, thank you ladies, that was a pleasant interview. We'll call you soon to tell you whether or not you've received the job. Have a nice day!" Hikaru shooed them out of the apartment fast than Kendall diving to pick up change from the ground or Laura running to a restaurant for food.

"HEY! YOU STILL HAVE MY COAT!" shouted Kendall indignantly.

The front door opened, a red coat was swiftly thrown out, and the door was promptly shut. A curtain was brushed aside, and the house was quiet.

"Well THAT was weird," grumbled Laura, walking sullenly away from the largest house she had ever seen in her life. "Come on, Kendall," she said, grabbing her friend's arm and dragging her along. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens next."

After walking for a while, Laura stopped her friend. "Hold up a sec," she said, pulling a granola bar out of her pocket.

Kendall rolled her eyes and disapprovingly shook her head.

"WHAT?" shouted Laura, outraged. "I'M HUNGRY!"

"Yeah, yeah," said Kendall. "Come on, walk and eat!" Suddenly, Kendall saw a flash of silver catch her eye. "HOLD ON A MINUTE!" she screamed, and dove to the ground. "A 50 YEN PIECE!" she shouted. "WHOO!"

Laura just rolled her eyes and disapprovingly shook her head.

"WHAT?" cried Kendall. "DON'T COME COMPLAINING TO ME IN TEN YEARS WHEN I'M RICH AND YOU'RE NOT!"

Laura just laughed and linked her arm within Kendall's as they walked down the street.

**So? What didja all think?**


	4. Hitachiin's Decision

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I wrote this as fast as I could! And yes, I know it's short, that's why I'm uploading two chapters at the same time. Lucky you!**

**Disclaimer: Oops, I forgot this. It's been soo long since I wrote a new story. * This is my first Ouran fanfiction, by the way :3**

**Ouran (c) Bisco Hatori**

Chapter 4

Hitachiin Manor

"Well what did you think of them?" asked Kaoru.

"Why are you bothering to ask? You know you liked them as much as I did," replied Hikaru.

"Well, is it right to actually hire the first people we see?"

"Why not? We both liked them."

"At least you did," retorted Kaoru.

"Oh, come on, so did you…"

"You just want to have sex with them, Hikaru."

"DO NOT!...Besides, you can't deny they'd be the best maids we've ever had, and by far the most interesting."

"They'd make great toys," Kaoru agreed.

"See?"

"Fine, let's call them and tell them they've got the job."

"Woah, woah," spluttered Hikaru, grabbing Kaoru's arm to prevent him from picking up the phone. "You can't call them right now!"

"Why not?" he whined.

"Because a) they just left and b) they're probably not home yet and c) we don't want to seem eager. Let them be the ones in suspense for a week or so!"

"But Hikaru! That's so mean!"  
>"It's not mean! It's polite!"<p>

"It's polite to make someone wait so long for a phone call?"

"Fine! We'll call them tomorrow, happy? Ugh, I swear, you're going to be the death of me!" Hikaru flopped onto the couch and massaged the bridge of his nose, shooting his twin an evil glare.


	5. Results

**Okay, two chapters at once! Just call me butter, 'cause I'm on a roll! :D The next chapter should be up by Sunday/Monday-ish…yeah, that's an 'ish,' deal with it. (Just kidding.) And sorry if this spacing is weird. Blame it on Microsoft.**

**Ugh. Microsoft. *Grumbles to self***

Chapter 5

The Next Day

Kendall's and Laura's Apartment

"What do you want for breakfast?" Laura asked Kendall. She had gotten up before her friend, and decided to make breakfast. "Healthy or unhealthy?"

Kendall shot her twin a look from her lounging spot on her bed, raising an eyebrow.

"You're right," said Laura. "I suppose I don't have to ask." She started making an unhealthy breakfast. She put chocolate chips on bread, microwaved it, and then folded the bread in half. It was a favorite breakfast of theirs that was first concocted in high school.

A few minutes later, Laura arrived back in the room with two plates in tow. She threw one unceremoniously on Kendall's lap, receiving a grunt of anger, and flopped down on the other bed. Kendall stuffed the slice of bread in her mouth all in one bite while Laura ate it slowly, savoring each bite of chocolate.

Kendall flicked the DVD player on and both girls squealed with delight when a Sebastian and Ciel fanservice moment came on.

"It could just make me eat three whole bowls of rice!" exclaimed Laura, falling back on the bed in mock-faint.

"Oh, grow up," said Kendall, who received a pillow to the head in retaliation.

"Payback, bitch."

All of a sudden, there was a phone call.

Kendall and Laura both gasped, looked at each other, and lunged for the phone at the same time. Their heads knocked together and they sat on the floor for a moment, massaging their throbbing heads, forgetting that the phone was ringing until it was too late. The voicemail that the girls had made when they first moved to Japan started playing and they sat and listened, both too lazy to actually pick up the phone.

_Hi, it's Kendall! –and Laura!_

_We're not here right now! –because we're probably watching porn – I mean, anime!_

_So leave us a message! –and when we're done fangirling, we'll get back to you!_

_Unless we hate you!_

_God bless you!_

After the bothersome _beeeeep!,_ two voices were heard leaving a message.

_Uh__…__._ There was an awkward silence.

_Hey…it's, uh, Hikaru…and Kaoru. We, uh, interviewed you guys- I mean, girls yesterday. Does that even bother girls? I've always wondered that. I mean, I supposed it would bother me if I was a girl, but I've never even really hung out with a girl before, I mean, except for Haruhi, but I'm not quite sure that counts._

There was a scuffling sound, then a thud, and then some yelling. Then Kaoru picked up the phone. He took a deep breath, and continued the message.

_We just wanted to let you know about the results of your interview..._

Kendall and Laura lunged for the phone before he could hang up. Laura was slightly faster, and reached the phone first. 

"Hello?" she said, slightly out of breath and still massaging her head.

"H-Hello?" stammered Kaoru.

"What does he want!" demanded Kendall.

"What's up?" asked Laura.

"Well, we just wanted to let you know that you guys are hired. Can you stop by um, what's today? Thursday? How 'bout Saturday morning at eleven o' clock? Same place?"

"Uh, sure! See you then!" Laura hung up the phone, keeping her poker face at large. She turned toward Kendall, making sure that her face didn't betray her excitement.

"WHAT DID THEY SAY! HOW CAN YOU KEEP ME IN SUSPENSE SO LONG! YOU'RE SO MEEEEAN!" She then crumpled to the ground and flailed around, not able to stand it any longer.

"THEY SAID WE HAVE THE JOB! WE HAVE A JOOOOOB!"

"AAAHHHH!"

The neighbors three floors down heard the squeals of delight coming from the girls upstairs.


	6. The First Day on the Job

**AM I AN AWFUL PERSON FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER? I AM SO SORRY! We were moving and there wasn't internet and I had no room for awhile; I didn't have ANIME, I BARELY HAD MY DRAWING STUFF! OTL I ALMOST DIED!**

**But now I have a GORGEOUS, spacious new house :3 I am currently enjoying it right now. I'm hoping to get this chapter uploaded before tomorrow. *Crosses fingers***

Chapter 6

Hitachiin Manor

Saturday morning, 11 a.m.

Kendall and Laura rested their heads on each others' shoulders as the subway cantered towards the Hitachiins' manor. It was a long ride, and the girls were tired. They had already been on the subway for twenty minutes.

"Are we almost there?" shouted Laura. "You know I hate small spaces! How much longer do I have to be trapped in this damn coffin?"

"Laura, calm down, you're making a scene! You're gonna be okay," she said soothingly while hugging her practically-biological sister.

"I don't care! How much longer do we have to be on here?"

_This is now the Osaka station; all passengers departing should exit through the west doors. This is now the Osaka station; all passengers departing should exit through the west doors._

"Um, not much longer," called Kendall, exiting the crowded subway without her faithful friend.

"HEY! WAIT UP!" shouted Laura, flailing her arms in desperation as the crowd separated them further and further.

Eventually she emerged, gasping, from the throng of mobbing people. She bent over with her hands on her knees, panting; a deranged look in her eyes.

"Uh, Laura…? You okay?"

Laura fell over and said between gasps "You…know I…hate…small spaces…and big crowds."

Kendall simply shrugged and dragged her friend along.

A few minutes later (21 to be precise) Laura regained control of herself and shuffled along with her hands in her pockets and her neck bent down.

"You're just gonna hurt your neck again if you do that," said Kendall in a motherly way. "And I'm NOT gonna take you to the chiropractor. So stand up straight, bitch."

_Ah, there's that friendly punch I've been waiting for. It would've been weird if she was too motherly._

The girls finally arrived at the Hitachiin Manor. Kendall stood up straight and extended her lithe arm to ring the massive doorbell. Laura stood hunched over next to her.

A few minutes later, the door opened.

"Hello," said the twins in unison, as usual. "What brings you hear today?"

Kendall raised her eyebrow and looked at Laura.

"Don't play stupid," the girls chorused, inviting themselves in. They both took their coats off and each handed them to a different twin. "You'll be hanging our coats up, we presume?" The girls both tilted their heads left and flashed innocent looks to the boys.

Hikaru and Kaoru turned to look at each other, completely surprised. What happened to the girls they had hired on Wednesday? It was like they were completely different people now. They shrugged, hung up the coats, and met the girls on the couches where they had been previously interviewed.

"You're a little bit cockier now that you have the job, aren't you?" said Kaoru, sitting down on the couch next to his brother.

A plate of chocolate-chip cookies sat enticingly on the coffee table in between the couches. Laura reached for a cookie at the same time that Hikaru did, brushing his hand. Their eyes met, and then they both childishly fought for the exact same cookie, even though there were hundreds of them sitting on the massive platter, overwhelming the quaint coffee table.

Kaoru turned to his brother whilst Kendall turned to her friend. They both shot the other a look as if to say _Really?__How__mature__…__._

Laura slapped Hikaru's hand, and while he was in shock, took the opportune moment to steal the cookie. She stuffed all of it in her mouth in one bite and shot a look of superiority to Hikaru. Kendall raised her eyebrow, causing Laura's rapid chewing to slow.

"What?" she demanded between bites of cookie.

"Nothing," said Kendall.

"Well, shall we show you ladies around?" asked Kaoru. "I'm sure you'd love to be familiar with your work place."

The four stood up and preceded down a hallway, Hikaru with his arms crossed, pouting because he didn't get the cookie that he wanted.

"This door is just a linen closet," said Hikaru. He opened the first door on the right to reveal a room larger than any Laura and Kendall had ever seen.

"WHAT?" screeched Kendall. "This is AT LEAST the size of our apartment!"

Kaoru and Hikaru just shrugged and moved to the next room. "Here's a bathroom, um, and another closet…and another bathroom. This floor's pretty boring." The twins walked up a grand staircase to the next floor.

"And this…." said the twins, rubbing their hands together mischievously, "is OUR floor." They giggled and chased each other around the whole floor like little children.

"And where exactly are your rooms?" demanded Laura.

"You mean ROOM," called Hikaru, emphasizing the fact that they shared one room while bashing Kaoru on the head with a pillow.

"Fine, ROOM," Kendall responded. "Where the hell is it?"

"Down the hallway, first door on the left," the twins called together.

The girls made their way over to the room and gasped when they opened the door. Toilet paper was strewn everywhere, the bed was unmade, homework and other papers were dumped on what could barely be identified as a desk, a bubble bath was flooding the rest of the room, and the girls were pretty sure that a monkey was cooing in the far corner, which reeked of bananas and monkey feces.

Kendall and Laura looked at each other, looked back at the room then shut the door. They simply could not deal with this gigantic disaster. This was a mess best left for later rather than sooner.

"Have fun!" sang the boys. "Oh, and make sure to have all of your stuff moved in by next Saturday!"

**A/N: **

**Poor girls. That's not even the worst to come. *Hangs head in shame***

**Do they even have subways in Japan? Um, sure, they do now! *writer's license* I also don't know if Osaka is real place, or if the Hitachiins live there. Excuse my laziness as a writer/I haz no internet for a long time and just really wanted to get this uploaded, never mind looking up pesky little details. Go-frickin'-menasai.**


	7. Reminiscence

**Woo, another chapter! Thanks to anyone that reviewed!**

**To the anonymous reviewer that said they liked Kendall better, just curious, do you like Kaoru better too?**

"Aw, Kendall, do you remember this?" asked Laura, amidst a pile of junk.

"I dunno, what is it?"

Laura held the object out to Kendall, and upon closer inspection, was revealed to be Laura's first camera. The girls had used it many times throughout high school to take cosplay pictures. One day the camera had simply stopped working from overuse. It was a sad day.

Kendall sat down and helped Laura dig through piles of junk to pack in order to move to the Hitachiin's mansion.

"Woah, look!" called Kendall. "It's a really old sketchbook of mine!"

Laura peered over Kendall's shoulder. "Oh, yeah!" she said, smiling and flipping though the pages.

"Ugh. This is SO disproportionalte!" Kendall gave her sketchbook a disgusted face and threw it in Laura's hands. "It's awful!"

Laura picked out a drawing that Kendall used to be extrememly proud of when she had first made it in eleventh grade. "Wat's wrong with this?"

"I don't even wanna look at it!" Kendall walked out of the room while Laura secretly placed it in a moving box.

Kendall returned seconds later with a jar of cookies and a stack of books. She sat on the edge of the bed, passing books to Laura one by one while eating the cookies.

By Thursday morning, their whole apartment was packed. The girls stood back and stared in awe at the massive tiers of khaki boxes.

"And now…" sighed Laura.

"-the real work begins..." finished Kendall.

The girls started the agonizing, interminable process of carrying boxes to the moving truck. They would've hired professional movers had the Hitachiins not neglected to pay them.

"Okay, I'm done," called Kaoru, flopping onto a blue, poofy couch.

"But you've only moved two boxes…"

"Too damn bad."

By nine o'clock in the evening, their apartment was miraculously empty.

**So, who do the rest of you like better? Kendall or Laura?**


	8. Unpacking

**I just realized I never really described Laura or Kendall. Sorry about that. I'll try and do better this chapter.**

Who would've Guessed Chapter 8

**And the New Maids Enter**

"What the hell is going on?" called a bleary-eyed Hikaru out the front door while grasping his coffee cup for dear life. "Hit me," he said to Kaoru, who poured each of them another cup of the strongest coffee available.

"We're moving in…" said Laura. "What do you mean 'what's going on'?"

"I mean, it's only…I don't even know what time it is." It was too early for the red-head to even have put on his watch yet.

"It's nearly 10 o'clock," said Laura through gritted teeth, shoving her blue watch in Hikaru's face. "See? Gosh, what time do you guys even get up? Noon?"

"NO!" retorted Hikaru.

"Three?" called Kendall.

"Now THAT'S more like it," chimed Kaoru. "Much better."

"I can't believe you," said a disgusted Laura. "You could at least help us." She shoved a brown box into Hikaru's unprepared hands and grabbed another.

She had a red bandana on, pinning her short blonde hair back to her head. She was wearing blue skinny jeans and black combat boots, something her mother would have never let her wear if she was still living in Wisconsin. She was also sporting a ripped purple t-shirt with black Japanese kanji spelling "peace" and a gray tank top underneath. She wore a bracelet made of black and purple pop tabs on her left hand.

Hikaru yawned and reluctantly helped the girls, Kaoru trailing not too far behind.

"So, where's our room?" piped Kendall, eager to see if their quarters were as large and glamorous as the rest of the house.

"On the third floor, fifth door on the left," grunted Kaoru from behind two large boxes. He was still wearing his sky blue, grey, and white horizontally striped pajamas and old, pink bunny slippers. His hair was a wreck because he hadn't had a chance to comb it properly. He yawned cutely after unpacking a few more boxes.

Kendall and Laura carried some more boxes upstairs, running to get to their room. They each arrived at the same time and placed a hand on a set of elegant French doors; Laura on the right and Kendall on the left. They made eye contact, took an identical deep breath, and then plunged through the doors.

They girls immediately gasped as their eyes quickly grew to the size of dinner plates. They could not believe what they saw.

**Muahaha, CLIFFIE!**

**I KNOW, I'M EVIL! MAUHAHA**

**Sorry. But you'll have to tune in to the next chapter to see what they see ^.^**


	9. Magic Carpet

The room that stood before them was a complete disaster-no - a ramshackle, rickety, doddering, bedraggled disarray was more like it.

The girls dropped their suitcases in disbelief; a resounding thud ensued. They had just seen the most glorious house ever, and this was the derelict room that they were forced to reside in. The one measly window in the room was covered in so many layers of grime that the sunlight gave up attempting to shine through. There were cobwebs galore in the upper corners. There wasn't a bathroom, but from the smell of a bucket in a drafty corner, the girls inferred that they were to use it for their bathroom needs. A disgusting mattress with stained blankets stood on a derelict rusted mattress. Kendall flounced down on it, resulting in a blast of dust and a wailing _"__CREEEEEAK!__"_

"What the _HELL_ is this? This isn't a room!" complained Kendall. Her red dress was now covered in ancient dust. Her round cheeks were smeared with dirt and her once sort-of neatly combed hair was now a mess. She wore her black-and-red-horizontally-striped socks up to her knee. The elastic was fading quickly as she had worn the socks quite often, and they slowly started slouching down her leg.

"What do you mean 'not a room'? It looks fine to me," said Kaoru, leaning cockily with his arms folded across his chest against the door frame.

"Yeah," said Hikaru, chiming in. "I don't see what you're so upset about."

"Upset? _Upset?_" seethed Laura through clenched teeth. "On no, I'd be _upset_ if I dropped my homework in a puddle. I'd be _upset_ if we ran out of milk. I'd be _upset_ if my art didn't work. This is just beyond upset. This…this…this is downright cruel."

The twins simply shrugged their shoulders and walked away.

"Oh they are _so_ going to get it," threatened the maids at the same time.

"Don't forget to clean our room!" Hikaru received a purse thrown at his face by Kendall for this untimely reminder.

*Spater* (Later, for those of you who don't speak German ;) ******

"Well, what are we going to do?" asked Kendall.

"There's only one thing to do," said Laura.

"Kill them?"

"…" Kendall received a worried look from Laura. "No, dumbass, first we're going to make this room the greatest place to ever live in, and show those sorry sons-of-bitches that the girls rule this house, and that they can't walk all over us. They're gonna wish this was THEIR room!" She rubbed her hands together in a maniacal way. "You take that side," she plotted, pointing to the left, "and I'll take this side." She pointed to the right.

Ninety minutes later a lot of the junk was cleared out. The bathroom bucket was, of course, immediately emptied and the cobwebs swept away. Old, useless things were thrown away, and anything considered somewhat useful or cool was kept by the girls and thrown next to the 'window.'

The clearing away of more junk revealed an adorably quaint window seat located under a freshly-cleaned window. When the girls looked outside, they realized they actually had a nice view of the backyard –if one could call it that; it was so magnificent- once the multiple layers of muck were cleared off. Once dust was beaten out of some ancient pillows, the girls had nice accents to put against the bench.

Three hours later revealed that all of the junk was cleared away. Kendall and Laura only had "maid-type" duties left: sweeping and mopping the floor, dusting stuff, and vacuuming the rug that appeared to be from the 60's.

"Well, I suppose this is good practice for what we'll be doing next," Laura said dejectedly while holding her hands on her hips.

Laura swept the floor, and then Kendall mopped it. Laura dusted the remaining cobwebs while Kendall vacuumed the carpet.

"Well I'll be darned," Laura said, standing next to Kendall and looking at the clean carpet.

"It doesn't look so bad once you clean it up."

"Yeah, almost like you- OW! WHAT THE HELL?"

"Hmph," was all that Laura heard out of Kendall.

The carpet, once vacuumed, was revealed to have peace signs all over it, and look quite 60's-ish – but in a good way. It had every single color on there, including red and green, the girls' favorite colors. However, no matter how many colors it contained, it did not clash.

"This is our magic carpet," said Laura, flopping down on it and putting her hands behind her head.

"Yeah," Kendall agreed, laying identically next to her.

Just then, the Hitachiins walked in.

"Oh, sleeping on the job, I see-" Hikaru cut himself off when he saw the new room before him. "What did you guys do?"

"Jealous, Hikaru?" Laura strutted to Hikaru, containing her loathing of him in each step. Kendall sauntered over to Kaoru and stood mocking him.

Neither of the boys said anything, but their sulking silence said anything more than they possibly could have.

"Oh and don't worry," chimed the girls sarcastically, "we won't forget to clean your room." With that they walked out of their new room and slammed the door behind them.

"Make sure to clean up your footprints," said Laura, leaning through the door and pointing to the dusty prints that the Hitachiins had made on the ground; stark in contrast with the scrubbed carpet, but would simply blend in on any other.


	10. Cleaning the Twins' Room

**A/N: Okay, a lot of you have reviewed saying that my chapters aren't long enough, and believe me, I'm trying. I'd rather write a short, really good chapter as opposed to a really crappy long one. I'm tyring, so…just bear with me.**

**Chapter 10**

"Well, here we go…" said Kendall.

"Any minute now…" chimed Laura.

"Wow, we sure got ready fast…"

"And look, this room shouldn't take too long to clean, right?"

"Oh, who are we kidding? Let's just go in and get this over with."

It was Saturday morning, the absolute last minute, and the girls were contemplating entering and cleaning the Hitachiins' room. They really didn't want to, so they were stalling as long as possible.

"Yeah…"

Laura flipped her New York Yankees cap backwards, so that the bill of the hat was behind her head. Her red converse either clashed horribly or looked awesome with her purple skinny jeans; one simply could not tell. Her baggy t-shirt only revealed how flat-chested she really was. She had paint-splattered suspenders dangling uselessly from her jeans, hanging behind her t-shirt. She bent over a corner of the room, and started throwing out everything.

"What are you doing?" worried Kendall. She sported a red and black headband with a russet feather peeking of the left side. Her red-and-black plaid skirt accented her red shirt and red tights. Her combat boots shone with a recent shoe-shine.

"Um, thowing shit out…" clarified Laura.

"Why?"

"Because they're not gonna know that it's gone, and we need to clean it, so why not just throw it out?"

"Well, what if they do notice it's gone and we get fired?"

"Well, they're not going to, trust me."

"How do you know?"

"…"

"Exactly."

"Fine, you wanna waste hours of time cleaning, be my guest. But I've got a landscape picture to finish painting for art class."

"…"

"Exactly," Laura triumphed.

"My own words, so harshly thrown back at me," Kendall said, mock-fainting. Seeing she was beat, she bent down and started joining Laura in throwing out the piles of junk. "Ugh, that's disgusting," Kendall said, picking up an old piece of homework from when the twins were in 8th grade. It was covered and syrup, and from the name and grade, one could see that Kaoru was not great in math.

"Heh, look at this one," called Laura, holding up a piece of paper covered in whipped cream that revealed Hikaru's lack of genius in Japanese Literature.

"AHHH!" screamed Kendall from behind a mound of shit.

"KENDALL, WHAT'S WRONG?"

"There's a mouse!" she screamed hysterically.

"AHHHHH!" screamed Laura as well. "EW, EW, EW, EW, EW, EW, EW!" She flipped her hands hysterically. "Get it away from me!"

"You think I want a mouse near ME?" Kendall joined in Laura's hysteria.

"You know what, I've got a better idea," Laura said.

"What?" asked Kendall, seeing the mischievous glint in Laura's eyes.

"Why don't we just put all this shit in their bed? They told us to clean it up, they didn't say WHERE to clean it up…And there is NO WAY I am dealing with cleaning up a mouse. Ugh." She shuddered to emphasize her obvious dislike of rodent creatures.

"Fine by me," Kendall agreed.

And with that, the girls threw all the junk into the large double-King sized Hitachiin bed.

When they finished, the girls stepped back to view their masterpiece. From the outside, there was nothing obviously wrong with the bed. But, pull back the sheets and the boys were in for a big surprise, including a mouse. The room shone, and the immediate appearance was that the girls had simply cleaned (well, NO Hitachiin-cleaning was ever simple) the football-stadium sized room.

The girls couldn't wait for tonight. They exited the room with cleaning supplies in tow, giggling hysterically as they pictured the twins' faces that they would be seeing later tonight.


	11. In Sickness and in Health

**Chapter 11**

**Okay, so I made A LOT of changes. This is one of them. I kind of cut and edited the last two chapters. I only got one review on the last chapter that I put up by Christmas time, so I'm really hoping you guys review this chapter! P.S. There is romance in the future for sure, now that I figured out the outline and stuff~! **

_Ahegh_

The younger Hitachiin gave a cough, shuddering his body. His older brother gave him a worried glance, but Kaoru passed it off as merely clearing his throat, and bent over to pick up his pencil from the ground.

Hikaru looked away, not entirely convince that his brother was okay, when all of a sudden his body was wracked with coughs. _Oh, shit,_ he thought, realizing he now had a cold too.

Glancing around the room, he realized that they weren't alone. The maids were in there. He gave a little shudder, recalling the mess they had so graciously left in their bedroom. Hikaru made eye contact with Kaoru, and then jerked his head, signaling that he wanted to talk privately. He let his twin telepathy do the rest.

"What's up-" Kaoru asked, ending his sentence with a cough.

"Okay, we're not stupid, we both realize we're coming down with a cold, right?"

Kaoru raised his eyebrows in mock surprise, trying to suppress another cough.

"Come on, Kaoru, we both know it, stop being stupid. You have a cold, and so do I. Now let's just go to bed, I'm sick of acting."

With that, the boys crawled into their oversized bed, now freshly cleaned and laundered by another set of maids.

"Dammit, Kaoru, you've got a fever," said Hikaru, feeling his brother's forehead. His worried look pained his brother, who couldn't stand to see his twin not smiling.

"I'm fine, Hikaru, stop being a mother." Kaoru pushed Hikaru's hand away, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. He rolled over away from Hikaru and fell soundly asleep.


	12. Birthday Party

**Chapter 12**

_Oh no. Oh no,_ thought the girls. _Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no. Not TODAY!_

Today was Sunday, June 9th, and the twins were supposed to be having a birthday party. However, as they were lying sick in bed, they were in no condition to host a party.

"What are we going to do?" panicked Laura.

"Um…" said Kendall, thoughtfully biting her lip. "Oh! I know!" She whispered her idea into Laura's ear.

"Yeah! That's great!" As Kendall put the plan into action, Laura cleaned up the twins' latest escapade so the house would be presentable when the guests arrived.

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang. Kendall's and Laura's heads jerked up at the same time, and they worriedly made eye contact. They gave each other the silent nod then hastily opened the front door.

"Welcome," they said in cheerfully false voices. "You must be the Host Club the boys have told us so much about!" In reality, the twins had never mentioned the Host Club to them directly, but a bit of eavesdropping never hurt anyone.

The guests walked in, one by one, and handed their presents to the girls.

"Hi!" bubbled a small, blond boy. "I'm Honey! And this is Mori!" he pointed to a very tall, dark man who was dressed in a brown sweater and jeans, and was giving Honey a piggy back ride. He towered over the girls. "You must be the new maids Hika-chan and Kao-chan talked about! Gosh, they never said you were so pretty!"

Laura and Kendall blushed and pushed Honey and Mori into the house, gladly welcoming the next guests.

A dark-haired boy, slightly taller than average, hung up an iPhone that he was talking into as he walked up the porch steps.

"Hello," he said, giving a jolly grin, which the maids recognized as being equally false as theirs. They breathed a sigh of relief once he passed them, walking into the foyer.

"Hi. I bet you're having a busy day. Need any help?" The girls were startled by the assertive and calming nature of the short, brown-haired boy who next walked in. "I'm Fujioka, Haruhi Fujioka, that is."

"Oh, thanks," said Laura, shaking Haruhi's hand. "But no, we don't need any help right now."

"We'll let you know if we do," added Kendall, finishing for Laura.

"HI!" shouted another blond boy. "IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU! You must be the new maids-"

"Yes, we are, interjected Laura, happy to cut off this 'happy-parade' as soon as possible. "I'm Laura, and this is Kendall." She pointed to Kendall, who looked simply mortified at this boy's enormous amount of bubbly energy.

"I'm Tamaki! But you can call me Tama-chan," he stage-whispered.

"Nice to meet you," Kendall said through clenched teeth. She pulled Tamaki-er, "Tama-chan," through the front door, stuck her head out to make sure no one else was coming, and slammed it shut.

The girls turned around to face the guests that they would be forced to entertain for the next few hours.

"Make yourselves at home," they said, while running upstairs. A dust cloud was their only remains.

Kendall and Laura threw on their orange wigs that they had saved from a play in high school. They each hurriedly finger-brush each other's hair. Kendall threw on a hoodie to hide her "feminine physique" while Laura simply put on a baggy T-shirt. They changed into a pair of their own jeans. The girls raided Hikaru's and Kaoru's closet to find a pair of matching shoes. The twins had bigger feet than the girls, so the shoes slid off the girls' feet when they walked.

Laura gave Kendall a once-over while Kendall did the same to Laura. They nodded their heads and said "Good," then ran down the stairs while clutching the tops of their head to ensure that their wigs stayed in place.

"Hey," said Laura to the guests. She tripped on the last stair, and her shoe fell off, revealing some black toe-nail polish.

Kendall gave a cough and walked in front of the fallen shoe, kicking it behind her. Laura sat on the ground, fumbling to get the shoe properly on, triple-knotting the laces.

"So, welcome," said Kendall. "Thanks for coming. Who wants to play Lego Star Wars?"

The boys all mumbled their agreements and followed Kendall upstairs, while Laura brought up the rear.

"Hey, Kaoru," said Laura, calling over the boys' heads. Kendall didn't turn around. "Hey, Kaoru!" shouted Laura, more urgently. "KAORU!" yelled Laura. She breathed a sigh of relief when Kendall finally turned around. "Don't you remember? The maids moved the game room upstairs on the left!"

"Oooooh!" said Kendall, turning around and leading the Host Club upstairs. "Let's go!"

Kendall waltzed to Laura, who was now the front of the pack. "This is going to be a DISASTER!" she whispered to Laura through clenched teeth.

"You're telling me," she agreed.

A video-game filled hour later, the chef came upstairs with finger sandwiches for everyone. After that, the boys decided that it was time for the twins to open their presents.

"Um, okay," said Laura, wanting to end the party as soon as possible. She grabbed the nearest gift, which was quite large.

"That's for you, Kao-chan!" said Honey.

Laura rolled her eyes, and passed the present to Kendall. Honey looked down at his feet, ashamed for not being able to properly tell the twins apart.

"You know what, how about everyone just gives the presents to me, and _I'll _ pass them to the twins!" said Haruhi, clapping her hands together.

Laura and Kendall raised their eyebrows, started by this boy's helpfulness. _Why would he do that?_ They wondered.

Five minutes and a few presents later, they were amazed. Haruhi had not gotten it wrong once.

_How does he do that?_ Laura wondered.

After all the presents were opened, cake was eaten, and more Lego Star Wars was played, all of the boys had finally left.

Well, all except for one, that is.

Only Haruhi remained.

"Okay, who the HELL are you two, and what have you done with Hikaru and Kaoru?" Haruhi shouted, turning on them the second the door closed on the last guest to leave, which was Tamaki.

"What do you mean?" asked Kendall.

"Yeah, we're Hikaru and Kaoru!" chimed Laura.

Haruhi simply walked up to them, and wordlessly pulled their wigs off. He gave them a look that said _I TOLD you so, now start explaining._ He kicked his hip out to the side in a womanly-fashion, then answered the question that Kendall and Laura had before they could even ask it: "Yeah, I'm a girl, by the way, so I guess that's one thing we've got in common. Now, what happened to the real twins?"

"Well, they were sick…" said Laura, looking down at her feet.

"And we felt bad for them."

"And we didn't want anyone else to worry about them."

"So we dressed up as them."

"And pretended we were them."

"So that they wouldn't have to miss their party."

"And no one else would be sad," Laura finished, looking up, along with her twin, at Haruhi.

"Where are they?" was all that Haruhi said.

Kendall and Laura simply pointed to the twins' room.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Haruhi asked, furious. She stood at the foot of the twins' bed, letting light in from the doorway and waking the boys.

"Mom?" asked Kaoru, obviously not fully awake. He turned away from Hikaru, and the both shielded their eyes from the light, pulling the sheets of their heads.

"No!" shouted Haruhi. "Not 'Mom'! Haruhi!"

The twins' eyes widened and Haruhi flung the sheets off. The boys shivered. "H-H-Haruhi? What are you doing here?"

"I'm wondering why you two are in bed while doppelgangers of you doppelgangers are running around, hosting a party!" she pointed to the girls, who had put their wigs on again.

Hikaru and Kaoru both blinked rapidly, trying to get their eyes adjusted to the light. "Shit! What the hell did the two of you do now?"

Laura and Kendall looked again at their feet.

"Well, you were sick…" said Laura, rotating the tip of her foot.

"And we felt bad for you." Kendall twiddled her fingers.

"And we didn't want anyone else to worry about you."

"So we dressed up as you guys."

"And pretended we were you."

"So that you wouldn't have to miss your party."

"And no one else would be sad," Laura finished.

Hikaru and Kaoru rubbed the bridges of their noses, sighed, and flopped back onto their pillows, exhausted.

"You know what, I'm out of here." Haruhi gave up and returned home, where, hopefully, things were more normal.

"Sit," said Kaoru, pointing at the foot of the bed. The girls sat.

"After the little escapade of 'cleaning' our rooms-" said Hikaru. Kendall and Laura made eye contact, trying not to laugh.

"-We were going to fire you," Kaoru finished.

"But I guess we can't, now, after what you did. You really helped us. Thanks."

Laura and Kendall gave each other excited looks, not believing what they were hearing.

"You've only kept your damn jobs, don't look so happy," spat Kaoru.

"Now get the hell out of here, we're tired."

The girls ran out of the room before the twins could change their minds.

"And don't forget to clean up everything from the party!" they called.

**This is for the person who reviewed saying "Don't you think the girls should have been fired?" **

**So who do you think will get the romance? Kaoru? Hikaru? Laura? Kendall? Do you wish the girls had been fired? Do you play Lego Star Wars? (My favorite Jedi is Mace Windu, in case you were wondering.) Could you tell which Host Club boy was which from my descriptions, before I had them introduce their selves? **

**Sorry if the italicizing doesn't work when it's up online, I have no idea why it does that…**


	13. Water in Bed, but NOT a Water Bed

**Guys, I am SO SORRY this took so long to upload! Between driver's training and my uncle dying, I really had NO free time for literally two weeks. D: But I really think you'll like this chapter~! I worked very hard on it!**

**Chapter 13**

_Cough cough_

_Hmm?_ Laura tilted her head, pulling her earphones out of her ear. Sure enough, the sound came again from the room on her left, which she knew too well as the Hitachiins' room. She saw her friend, and now coworker, on the other side of the hallway, also looking intently into the room.

_I kinda feel bad for them_, Kendall's eyes said.

_Really? After all that crap they pulled on us?_ Laura's eyes said back.

Kendall didn't say anything. She just gave Laura the "look." Laura sighed and they both walked together into the room at the same time. Laura threw down the laundry basket she was holding, and Kendall put her duster down on a nearby table.

They walked over to the bed, and stared down with sympathy at the indentical boys, who were inseparable, even while sleeping.

They rolled over and slowly opened their eyes to face the girls, wincing at the light the door let in.

"What do you want?" asked Kaoru.

"We're here to help you, dumbass," said Laura, placing her hands on her hips and tapping her foot.

"Aw, look at that, Hikaru," Kaoru said, sarcastically. "They feel bad for us!"

"DO NOT!" shouted Laura at the same time that Kendall said "Yep."

"Now, do you want it or not?" asked Laura with her usual brashness. "'Cause I've got a hundred better things that I could be doing right now, and none of them include you."

Kendall nudged Laura in the ribs for being so rude.

"Fine," said Hikaru. "We'll take your help. Go get us some water."

Laura walked off to get the water while Kendall stayed in the room.

***Laura's POV***

_Stupid boys,_ grumbled Laura. _Why'd they have to go and get sick?_ She turned into the kitchen, looking for some water, when she accidentally came across an old library. Now, common sense would dictate that one should exit the library, and resume searching for the water, but when it came to libraries, Laura simply couldn't help herself. She walked up to a shelf and pulled a thick book off. She blew air on it, blowing away several layers of dust, as any past-expert-owner of a Nintendo 64 would do.

The cover was revealed as an old physics textbook. Laura started skimming it, flipping through the pages, when a piece of paper suddenly fell out. She bent down to pick it up when she heard Kendall calling: "Do you have that water yet?"

_Oops,_ thought Laura. She shoveled off to get the water, stuffing the paper in her pocket to read later.

***3rd-Person POV***

Laura gave the water to Kendall, who was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands between her knees. Kendall poured the water into two identical cups, and gave one to each of the Hitachiins.

"I'll go tell the cook to make some soup," and with that she waltzed to the kitchen.

"No, wait, don't leave me alone with them-" Laura chased after Kendall, but she had already left.

And with that, Laura was left alone for the first time with each of the twins. All three of them made awkward eye contact over glasses of water.

Laura felt left out of the water party, so she walked over to the right side table to pour herself a glass. Her hand shook, and she almost dropped it.

"Here, let me pour it for you," offered Hikaru, who set down his own glass of water.

"I can do it myself," snapped Laura, who jumped back. "I'm not stupid, I can pour a glass of water."

Hikaru merely raised an eyebrow and resumed drinking his H2O. "Well, you gonna pour it, or what?"

Laura looked down and realized she was still holding the pitcher of water and an empty glass. "I've changed my mind. I'm not thirsty anymore." She set the water pitcher on the bedside table with a little more force than necessary.

Hikaru and Kaoru both snorted, slopping some water down the front of their pajamas.

"I've gotta pee," said Kaoru, who painstakingly got out from under the covers, shivered, and went to the bathroom.

Hikaru and Laura were left entirely alone, much to Laura's disgust. Hikaru patted the bed next to him, intending for Laura to sit with him. She turned to walk away, but Hikaru put his hand down her jeans pocket.

She whipped her head around, her eyes open wide. Hikaru took this moment of her surprise to grab her waist and fling her onto the bed next to him. His blue, gray, and white pajamas accented his fire-orange bed-head hair nicely. Laura couldn't help but notice how his hair caught what little light was coming from the doorway.

"You know, we're alone," said Hikaru in a lilting voice.

"Oh trust me, I know," said Laura, frowning and folding her arms over her chest.

"You know, when you do that, it makes it hard for me to do this." Hikaru tried putting his arm around Laura's waist, but she wouldn't stand for it.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?"

"This," he simply stated, while trying to kiss her.

_SLAP_

Hikaru's face turned a shade of red brighter than his hair, which Laura could clearly see even in the dark.

"Don't EVER pull that shit on me, EVER! Do you hear me, Hikaru Hitachiin? You boys are so sick; you think you can get whatever you want, whenever you want, but NO! This girl will NOT tolerate being used. I'm not some sick plaything for your free time. Is that why you hired us? So you could have sex with us? That's so disgusting!" Laura stood up from the bed as fast as possible, and punched Hikaru in the face with her left hand. She pulled her hoodie over her head to hide her tears. "KENDALL! LET'S GO! WE'RE LEAVING!"

And with that, Laura ran out of the room, heading to pack her things, brushing tears out of her eyes.

Hikaru was left in bed, rubbing his split lip, pondering the ways of women.

**Aww, I feel so bad for Laura. What do you think? Is this what you expected to happen? Do you wish Kendall will get romance? What do you think will happen in the next chapter? Do you wish I would change the POVs more? Do you wish me to stop asking so many questions? (Tough shit, that's not gonna happen.)**


	14. Soup

**Chapter 14 ~ Woah, can't believe I'm at 14!**

Kaoru POV

I set the glass of water down on the bedside table to right of the bed. I climbed out from underneath the goose-feather comforter and gave a shiver because my fever was making me freezing cold. I went into the bathroom, um…did my business, washed my hands, and then leaned against the counter, staring at the closed door. I knew that just outside it, Laura and Hikaru were there. Hikaru was probably saying something to piss her off, and Laura was probably thinking of ways to kill him in his sleep. Or any other time of the day.

I gave a small smile at the thought of it. He obviously liked her, why couldn't she see it? Of course, I was always the insightful twin. Not everyone had my powers of, as Hikaru liked to phrase it, "People Perception."

I loosened a couple tiles in the shower, which gave way to a gap in between the wall of the bathroom and the wall of the closet that bordered it. It must have been a mistake when building, but to Hikaru and me, it had always been a way to sneak out of our room, ever since we were kids. The gap between the walls opened up to a hole in the drywall (handcrafted by us) in the other closet. Hikaru and I had always been careful to keep it covered by mounds of clothes so our parents wouldn't notice.

I punched my way through the clothes and straightened up, stretching a bit. I could hear bits and phrases of Hikaru and Laura talking, although not enough to understand anything. I opened the closet door, which lead into a hallway, and cornered Kendall, who had been heading to the kitchen to get some soup.

She gave a small scream, and I covered her mouth.

"Shhh!" I shouted. "Hikaru thinks I'm in the bathroom, shut up!"

She silently nodded her understanding. I took my hands off her mouth, and walked by her side to the kitchen with my hands in my pockets.

"So what the HELL are you doing, might I ask?" She angrily questioned me with her trademark amount of dry sarcasm and anger.

The thought caused a small smile to creep up on my face, which only angered her more. She repeatedly slapped me, quite hard for someone of her stature, on my left arm.

"Fine, geez, if I tell you what I'm doing will you stop beating me?"

"I'm waiting," she put all her weight on her left leg and her hands on her hips.

"Well…" I was at a loss for words. I actually didn't even know why I followed Kendall. "Um…"

She kept staring at me with her hands on her hips. It was quite intimidating, and it didn't help me think any better. I kept getting lost in her eyes. They looked very dark brown in the hallway, where there wasn't much light. However, I knew as soon as she was in the kitchen, with fluorescent lights, her eyes would appear to be a green-brown color. Her freckles would also appear, and the red flush her cheeks seemed to permanently have. She fiddled with the hem of her skirt, her challenging eyes never dropping from my face.

"I, uh…I was just following you. Because I wanted to make sure you make the soup right. I mean, you're a maid after all, how much do you know about making soup? Someone's gotta be there to make sure you don't screw up. Besides, you, in a kitchen? Where there's sharp objects, and flammable things? Alone? I think a nuclear bomb inside a hippo sitting on a detonator to blow up the world would be more safe."

"Gee, thanks. It's nice to know how much you trust me."

"Well, it's not that I don't trust you-Well, it's kind of like...Um, it's sort of…well, yeah! I don't trust you in the kitchen! What's so bad about that? Besides, what's the matter, you don't wanna spend time with me?"

"Sure I do. Let's go." She linked her arm within mine; our elbows meeting in the middle. She skipped down the hallway, and I stumbled to keep up. Having a fever and skipping did not make good combinations.

Kendall and I arrived at the kitchen. It was dark, naturally, because it was now night and all the cooks had gone home.

"So…what do we do now?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there's no cooks…so how do we get soup?"

"We make it…" Kendall gave me a look like she could not believe my stupidity.

I had never made soup before in my life. Honestly, I had never made anything. That's what the cooks were for. Or carry-out. But I'd rather die than let Kendall know that, though. "Okay…so first we need…a bowl." I tried very hard to b.s. my way through it. _How do I do this? That's what he said-ah! That's not important! Focus, Kaoru, focus! You can't look stupid in front of her!_ "Um, the bowls are all the way up there…" Kaoru pointed to the highest shelf of the highest cupboard.

"Well, let's go!" Kendall jumped up onto the counter without hesitation.

Her skirt flew up when she did this, and, without meaning to, I looked up and saw Kendall's lime green underwear with strawberries.

_I love strawberries_. I snickered and blushed a little bit, feeling like a 13 year old, and not entirely hating it. Kendall looked at me, but I covered up my laughter with a not-entirely-fake coughing fit. I looked away and she kept climbing without any fear.

A few moments later, Kendall jumped down from the counter with a large bowl in her hands. "So now what?"

"Um…" I wished I had a Twix: I needed a moment. "I think there's a recipe book SOMEWHERE." I searched through another large cupboard until I finally found a book. "We could look in here."

"Yeah, but I don't think you'd have much luck."

"Wha-why?"

"Because that's a dessert book…"

I inwardly smacked my forehead. _How could you be so stupid?_

Kendall sidestepped me, her left shoulder touching my right shoulder the entire time. She reached up, rifling through the plethora of books that our cook hoarded. When she finally found one that seemed to do the trick, she blew the dust off the cover, leaving both of us in resulting coughing fits.

"This should work." She walked over to the counter and set the large, metal bowl down, a _THUD_ resounding once she sat the book down.

I glanced over her shoulder and read the recipe. I didn't know what any of it meant. _Good thing she knows what she's doing, or we'd both be going hungry right now._

"Go get some carrots, celery, chicken, salt, and spaghetti," she commanded.

I guessed where most of the stuff was, since I hadn't really ever been in our kitchen all that often. Five minutes later, I was back with cooking supplies in hand. I spilled them onto the counter, watching as the spices rolled around until they finally stopped.

"Now, cut the chicken into little bits, since you don't trust me with knives-"

"I don't."

"-and I'll measure the spices."

We set to work, me cutting chicken and her measuring spices. She put something called "fennel," "cassia," and "saffron" in, whatever those were.

"We should listen to the radio," she said matter-of-factly. She waltzed over and tuned it to a random station. "Oh my gosh, I love this song!"

I had never heard it before. It was kind of slow, but felt like it had the potential to get faster. It started out with a nice drumbeat, and an acoustic guitar. She danced around the kitchen, (See why I didn't trust her with knives?) nodding her head to the beat, while somehow managing to continue with the spices.

"Now what?" I asked once we were both finished.

"We put it all in the bowl and stir it."

I slid the chicken off of the cutting board and into the metal bowl. She emptied the rest of her spices and something from her pocket. When I questioned her about it, she merely shrugged her shoulders, saying, "Secret ingredient." She gave me a wink, signaling that she wanted to keep the ingredient secret.

The music was still playing, and I figured this was my chance. I had to be a man and suck it up, because no one else was around, and this would probably be the only time we were left alone for a while.

While she was stirring, I came up and cupped my hands around hers. She turned to give me a strange look, but I just stared at the soup, a strange little smile dancing across my lips.

She released the tension from her body, sighing a little bit. Her hair tickled my nose a little bit. I closed my eyes, and it smelled of strawberries. _She must really like strawberries…._

All of a sudden, the kitchen door slammed open. Kendall and I jumped apart from each other, the moment gone. I opened my eyes, turning around to see who else besides us were in the kitchen.

T'was none other than Laura, our other "merry maid."

"KENDALL! LET'S GO! WE'RE LEAVING!" With that, she turned around and slammed the door with so much force that it rebounded open. She was wearing a hoodie, and even though she tried hard to cover it, it looked like there were tear stains on the sides of her cheeks.

Kendall and I made brief eye contact. Her eyes looked startled, panicked, and even had a little bit of longing lingering there too; I'm pretty sure mine were mirrors of hers.

She ran out the door after her friend, sliding on the pristinely-waxed floors. I stood there, dumbly looking out the doorway with my hand raised, silently willing her to come back.

**WOAH, DRAAAAAMA! CLIFF HANGER! SUSPENSE!**

**Did you like it? Do you feel bad for Kaoru? Do you wish I had paired the characters up differently? Or not paired them at all? Do you wish they had made different soup? Do you want to illustrate my story? What color do you think the bowl was? Where do you think Kendall and Laura are going? Will they keep working for the Hitachiins? Will they split up? Will Laura be jealous of Kendall? **

**Do you guys still like the same characters better? Or do you see them differently now?**


	15. Coffee

**No annoying questions at the end this time, guys, I promise ;) **

**Chapter 15 – Coffee Shop**

_ONE MONTH LATER_

It had been a month since the fateful day when Laura walked on Hikaru. He had scared her; she had never been used like that before. She had even thought that she might start to like him, and that thought scared her even more. After he broke her heart, she ran out, never going back again.

_Kendall POV_

"_What's this?" Kaoru asked, eyeing the folded up piece of paper that Kendall had set upon the counter._

_Kendall refused to make eye contact with him, biting her lip. She silently willed him to open it himself._

_Seeing how reluctant she was, Kaoru cautiously opened the letter, acting like he expected a poisonous frog to jump out._

Mr. Hikaru Hitachiin and Mr. Kaoru Hitachiin,

We regretfully inform you that we would like to terminate our jobs with you, effective immediately. We cannot accept the fact that one of you would try to take advantage of this. We have thought long and hard about this and made our final decision. Please do not try and change our minds as it will only infuriate us more.

Thank you for your time,

Kendall and Laura

_At the bottom both girls had signed their names. The ink was smudged in several places where either one or both of the girls had cried. Kaoru's eyes fervently scanned the page, his brother reading just as fast over his shoulder. Hikaru simply made a 'tch' sound and walked away while Kaoru stayed more concerned. _

"_W-well, what if there was- There's gotta be something…Don't leave!" Kaoru finally ended with, not being able to properly form words. He watched Kendall's figure turn and walk out the door. A few of her teardrops splashed on the counter, right next to where she and Kaoru had made soup the previous _

_evening. _Jeez, things could have gone so much better…_thought Kaoru to himself._ Dammit, Hikaru, why did you have to ruin this?_ He saw Kendall's silhouette continue out the door. He wanted so badly to chase after her, but knew it would cause more harm than good. _

_Kendall opened the door and flopped onto the passenger seat, staring out the window._

_Laura backed the car down the driveway and drove home. With each passing second, everything reminded her of Hikaru and Kaoru, whether she wanted it to or not. The car they were driving in, for starters. The girls had been able to purchase it with the money they had made from their job. _

_Kendall couldn't ever eat soup again without thinking of Kaoru._

_Laura knew how much she had ruined for Kendall. She felt horrible, but couldn't stomach going back and working for that pig ever again. She told Kendall that she could stay at the manor, but was nonetheless glad when her friend declined the offer, refusing to work anywhere that had treated her friend so badly. Plus, they would be separated, which was not good for either of their health. Back in eleventh grade, when Kendall was sick, Laura became sick from being depraved of Kendall for so long. Neither of them wanted to experience that again. _

_And so, with that, Laura drove home. _

Laura flipped the sign on the door of the coffee shop from 'closed' to 'open.' She turned on the coffee machines, yawned, and waited for the usual morning rush of business people on their way to work and hipsters. She tied her apron and sent a quick text to Kendall.

It was not long before customers started arriving. Laura served them their coffee, inhaling the rich aroma that always hung in the air, even when there wasn't any coffee being made.

HIKARU POV

I sat in the limo, waiting for Kaoru to arrive. I threw my back pack on the ground and slid to a slouching position in my seat that I knew my mother would not approve of. I closed my eyes, resting. When I heard the sounds of Kaoru sitting down next to me, I opened my eyes and we started talking.

I told the driver to stop at our favorite coffee shop on the way to school. It was always good, and more importantly, quick. For some reason, I felt like actually getting the coffee myself instead of having our chauffer do it. Blame the spring air, I suppose.

I walked inside the store, inhaling the rich aroma of coffee that always hung in the air. I approached the counter, glad there wasn't any line. I ordered an espresso deluxe, and slid to the side, waiting for it to be made.

I tapped my feet and checked my watch, impatient as usual. Finally I saw someone's arm poke up over the counter with my coffee in tow. I snatched it up along with the receipt. I mused at the fact that they were like tickets for commoners, so they could keep track of their purchases.

I sat down in the car, and for lack of anything better to do, started reading the receipt. _Tono would be very amused by this…_I thought, and decided that I would save it and give it to him at the Host Club later.

Apparently there was a discount on coffee that day. "Monday Coffee Madness," it was called. I hadn't even known.

When I read the very last line, I gave a gasp of shock.

"HIKARU! What's wrong?" asked Kaoru, startled by my sudden outburst.

I gaped at the receipt, speechless. I wordlessly passed it to him, staring dead ahead.

The very last line said: _Your cashier today was Laura._

_Laura._

_Laura._

"STOP THE CAR!"


	16. Encounters

I ran inside the coffee shop and glanced past the counter to actually see the cashier now that I knew who it was.

Smudges from the coffee beans, a uniform hat, and glasses all hid her face, but I could still see the brown eyes and blonde hair beneath that I knew was Laura.

I waited until there was a lull in the customers, and then made my way up to the counter.

_Shit,_ I thought. _I have no idea what I'm going to say._

"What can I get for you, sir?" Laura asked while mixing various other drinks. She didn't even look at me.

"Um…I-"

"I can recommend the double espresso! It's very good! Especially flavored with strawberry syrup."

She finally stopped rearranging the jugs of coffee on the shelf and turned to look at me.

"You. What are you doing here?"

"Well…um…I wanted to talk to you."

"Start talking." She resumed adjusting things on shelves, this time purposely not making eye contact with me.

I followed her down the opposite side of the counter as she walked on the other side.

"There's a million things that I want to say to you-"

"There's a million things that I don't want to hear," she cut me off.

"But I figured I should start off with 'sorry'."

"Save it, Hikaru. I HATE 'sorry.' You know why? Because I think half the time people say sorry because they think they need to, not because they're genuinely sorry. Or they say it and then nothing gets done. They forget why they said it. That's why I hate sorry."

"Well, give me a chance to make it up to you. That's why I'm here." I stared at my shoes.

No one in my entire life had ever made me feel as scared as this tiny girl holding a ten-pound bag of coffee beans with a few loose hairs sticking out over the edge of her hat. The glare she gave me could have scared Cruella De Vil.

"And?"

_Well, she didn't make me leave…that's a start._ "If you don't want to hear sorry, you should let me make it up to you. I could take you out for a date; court you like I should have properly done. I'm sorry for what I did, it was douchey-"

"MAJOR douchey."

"-MAJOR douchey," I continued. "Horribly douchey. And frankly, you deserve better, because you are better than that. And-"

"Pick me up, 6:00."

She handed me a tiny scrap of paper. "Now GET OUT."

I ran out of the store, clutching that scrap of paper like it was my life. On it, in her hasty, childish handwriting, she wrote her address and then a tinier side-note: "I like Italian. ;)"

**When I was typing this I realized a fact that I would like to point out: "Cruella De Vil" spells out "cruel devil." And yes, I JUST got this. Don't patronize me. **

**I don't own Ouran High School Host Club, the characters, or Cruella De Vil. ^.^**


	17. Movie Night

Chapter 17

**Okay, this chapter's short. HOWEVER: I will make the next chapter uber-long to make it up to you guys; I promise! That is, if anyone still actually reads this…OTL**

_Ring. Ring._

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Kendall?"

"Yes?"

"It's me, Kaoru. Since Hikaru and Laura are going on a date tonight, I was wondering if you'd like to go on a date as well. We haven't seen each other in a long time."

"Sure. I'd love that."

"Great. I'll send the limo to pick you up in ten minutes."

1 Awkward Limo Ride Later

I arrived on the porch of Mr. Kaoru Hitachiin. He answered the doorbell and took me to his room. We sat on the bed and watched our favorite movie, _The Lion King._ I chuckled mischievously while watching it; Laura hated it, so we never watched it at our house.

About twenty minutes into the movie, a maid came in and brought popcorn and Fiji water.

I greedily ate it, trying to cure my insatiable hunger. "Mmmm. Dis shtuff's good," I said, through a mouthful of popcorn.

"We have it shipped in from Italy."

At the end of the movie, Kaoru turned the TV off, leaving us alone in the dark room. My eyes hadn't yet adjusted to the dark, so I was surprised, but not offended, when Kaoru's lips grazed mine. I leaned back on the couch as he stayed over me, our mouths only parting every few seconds for one of us to grab some air.

A few minutes later, we shifted positions, and now I was on top. I kissed his nose, his cheeks, any part of him that I could reach. I couldn't get enough.

He took his shirt off and reached for mine. I slapped his hands away. _Nu-uh. Don't even try, mister._ I had seen too many of MTV's _16 & Pregnant_ to realize that kids having kids doesn't work. Ever.

We continued kissing, but our lust was lost now. Eventually we stopped, and I just rested my head on top of his chest, our lungs breathing in and out at the same time. It was really peaceful.

Suddenly, I heard a loud slam. I threw Kaoru's shirt at him, and he put it on not a moment too soon.

Because suddenly, Laura and Hikaru barged into the room.


	18. Identities

Chapter 18

Hikaru's POV

Kaoru lay on our bed, and flipped through a magazine. "Come on, Hikaru, you're being stupid. Just pick one and go," he called to me.

"Yeah, but I don't know which one!"

I was standing in our over-sized closet, trying on multiple bow-ties and various button-down shirts. I'd never had this much trouble with clothes before. Perhaps, because our mother was a fashion designer, I was over-thinking the whole outfit.

"All right, gimme the damn bow-tie," he gurgled through a yawn. If we weren't twins, and I hadn't heard him talking through thousands of yawns, I would never have understood him. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and then gave a double-take to the bow-tie that I had selected. He squinted, holding it closely up to his face, and then held it up to the light. "Oh, no. Oh no, no, no," he muttered to himself, pacing throughout the closet.

Suddenly he turned in what appeared to be a spastic movement, and rummaged through the drawers containing our clothes.

I recognized the seizure-like movements as a spawn of inspiration. I leaned against the door and looked up at the ceiling; I waited for the inspiration to end, or for him to find the one exact bow-tie that he so desperately searched for. "K-Kaoru?" I called, immediately regretting it. Thankfully, he hadn't heard me.

"AHA!" he yelled a few minutes later. "HERE IT IS!" He pulled out a red bow-tie; a red-and-white-checkered shirt; black pants, shoes, and a jacket; and threw them up at me. "You're wearing these, only these, and exactly these. Now change and put them on. And DON'T-" he argued, holding up his hand as he saw I was about to interrupt "ask how I know this. I just do."

I turned around, pressed my lips together, and widened my eyes. Sometimes Kaoru was scary when he had his inspirations.

"Fuck this!" I yelled in frustration. I'm pretty sure anyone outside other than my brother would have been laughing their heads off at the commotion they hear emanating from my bathroom, where I was presently changing. Thank God Kaoru knew when to not laugh, otherwise he would have been in a pulp.

"Gimme the bow-tie," he said, holding out his hands. He knew right away what was going wrong without having to ask.

_Gotta love twin-telepathy,_ I mused to myself.

"There, you're perfect. Now get the fuck out and go pick up you're date before you're late."

I glanced at my watch: it was already 4:45, and Laura lived twenty minutes away. "Wish me luck," I barely called out as I ran through the mansion and practically dived into our limo.

As the driver made death-defying curb side turns and hair-raising passes on the roads that would have put any Hollywood stunt driver to shame, I hurriedly ran my fingers through my hair, desperately trying to get the radical, interminable, omnipresent…in short, fucking ANNOYING cowlicks to stay down.

"We're here, sir," the driver called out.

I looked at my watch: 4:55. We were five minutes early, after all that. I gave a smile and a chuckle to myself.

I walked to the door of the girls' apartment. Suddenly, it struck me that this was the first time I had seen their place. As I rang the doorbell, I stood back and scrutinized what I could see of the house. It was yellow, but not freshly painted. It was quaint, but not small. There were weeds, but they were not ugly; almost charming. The windows were coated in a faded, dirty white-wash. There were rosebushes along the side of the house. The cement porch had a few cracks here and there, which were mostly suppressed with a welcome mat that stated "Aloha!" and had a Hawaiian-girl surfing and a pineapple.

There was a cute little rocker next to the door. Two bikinis surreptitiously hung off the back, suggesting that two mischievous girls had recently been swimming.

I frowned to myself as I realized I had been standing here, smiling like an idiot, for almost two minutes. I knew girls took a long time, but surely even Laura wouldn't take that long to answer a door bell?

I grew impatient ("Calm down, Hikaru! Just wait!" I could hear Kaoru's voice in my head) and incessantly poked the doorbell like the annoying little shit that I was. When still no one answered, I took matters into my own hands. Surrounding the porch were hundreds, if not thousands, of little white rocks. You know, the annoying kind; the kind that hurts almost as bad as Legos when you step on them in the summer when you hurry to get to one side of the back yard to the other, and you've just gotten done swimming, and you don't want to put shoes on….you know, those kind.

I scooped a handful up and took four steps back from the porch. The entire second floor was long windows that stretched almost five feet tall; nearly floor-to ceiling windows; similar to the kind one

might find in the Queen's mansion.

I chose my first rock, closed my right hand around it, and threw it at the window. It rebounded with a pinging noise, and almost hit me, had I not stepped back out of harm's way. I threw another rock. The same thing. I chose a heavier one, and lobbed it. It hit the window with a _THUD!_ and hundreds of little cracks emanated from the center.

"_SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT!" _

Laura came running to the window, frowning, trying to figure out what caused the glass to shatter. As she walked closer to the window, she looked outside, and saw me. She had a paintbrush balanced on her ear, and her short, blond hair was pulled into a ponytail. She was wearing a paint-covered button-down shirt and had a matching paint-covered towel strewn over her left shoulder. Her face held an expression of confusion, and then one of shock as she remembered our date. Based on her clothing, I assumed she had forgotten.

As she disappeared from the window, I presumed that she ran down stairs to greet me, and momentarily was proved right as she opened the door, panting. _Why does it seem that is how we always greet each other?_

"Uh..hi," I said awkwardly. I had never been on a date where someone forgot about me. It was usually the other way around. And I have to say, I didn't really appreciate it!

"OhmigoshI'msosorry!" she said in one long breath. "Please, come in!"

She had an adorable little blob of lime green paint on her left cheek. I picked up the towel, and wiped it off for her. "There," I said. "Now you're perfect."

She immediately turned such a bright shade of red; I couldn't tell which was brighter: her red Converse, or her red cheeks.

She climbed up the narrow, wooden stairs that led to the second-story. I looked left: there was an adorable little kitchen with black and white checkered floor tiles. The room on my right was red, and resembled a parlor room. A door to the left of the stairs suggested the possibility of a bathroom underneath the stairs.

Not wanting to be left behind, I followed her upstairs. Emerging from the first story, it seemed as if I was brought into a different dimension. Everything around me was art, art, art, as far as the eye could see.

The entire second story had been remodeled into a gigantic art studio. Several easels bore unfinished paintings, and a chair set up next to a lime green canvas told me that Laura had recently been painting that particular picture.

"Th-this is amazing!" I called out like a tiny child. I inwardly chided myself for seeming so simple-minded.

But when I saw Laura blush, and act the same way, all my previous thoughts left me.

"No one's ever been up here before. This is pretty private for us."

"So where do you guys sleep?" I hadn't seen any bedrooms, and there weren't any up here.

"Oh, wherever we feel like. Usually somewhere on the floor up here."

"You're kidding!"

"Nah. Besides, back home, both our rooms were always covered floor to ceiling in art, so it made more sense to just have a giant art studio that was a bedroom, rather than a large bedroom that was a tiny art studio."

"Why don't you guys have beds? Wouldn't that be better than sleeping on the floor?"

"We had beds. But there was a flood recently. Thank GOD, none of the art was compromised. But our beds were ruined, and we never had the money to replace them. Whatever income we get usually goes straight into sketchbooks, cameras, paint, paintbrushes….you get the idea."

I stared guiltily at my feet. Here were two girls that didn't even have beds, while Kaoru and I had so much stuff that we didn't even need.

"But come on, beds are overrated. Who needs them? It's more fun to sleep in sleeping bags anyhow! It makes it seem like we have a sleepover every night! Besides, I'd rather have Nutella than a bed ANY night. Usually we just make a giant fort/mattress out of all our blankets. It's pretty damn fun; I'm not gonna lie. Makes me feel like a kid."

As I glanced to the farthest corner from the door and the window, and the only spot in the entire room that didn't have an easel in it, I realized that she was, indeed, right. There was a squashy pile of blankets and a few pillows strewn about. I laughed. It looked like a homeless person raided a Red Cross and then a hurricane came through.

"Sorry," said Laura, now glancing at _her_ feet. "I'm babbling. You don't care about where I sleep. I'm just being a moron."

"You're NOT being a moron," I said firmly. I glanced around at their art. It was truly amazing. Somehow their two styles were extremely similar, yet completely opposite. One could easily see who had created which art piece. "I like this red and black one that Kendall did. Oh, and you've got one similar! Ooh, I like them a lot!"

"You're KIDDING! No one can EVER tell our art apart!"

"Well no one can ever tell Kaoru and I apart! Heh heh, I guess I'm just good at it."

"Yeah? Well, I'm pretty good at it myself. I bet I can tell you and Kaoru apart."

"Nu-uh. No one's ever done that before."

She simply gave me a mischievous smile.

"Fine. You think you can tell us apart? I'll take that bet. But let's up the ante; make it more interesting!"

"Hmm…" she said, sticking her left toe out and tapping it on the ground in time with my heart. She bit her lip and put her hands on her hips. Some of her hair was falling in her face and she blew it back in place. "Fine," she finally said. "I win, you fix the window that YOU broke."

"Heh heh…sorry about that," I said, awkwardly scratching the back of my head. "And what do I get if you lose?"

"…a kiss?"

"Deal."

"Now," I started, "are we going to dinner or what? I'm starving. And the reservation won't last if we're late."

"Oh, shit! Yeah!" she ran to the left side of the studio, where I noticed there actually was a door.

"There's no way in hell I'm giving up a closet," she said to my questioning glance.

She slammed the door and I heard the various sounds of a girl changing. It was kind of funny. I heard more than one frustrated grunt and she came out very quickly. She ran downstairs at an incredible speed; she was simply a blur. Had she not walked into the closet a few moments ago, I would wonder what had just flown out of the door. I did, however, notice a flash of red.

Promptly three minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom downstairs and stood at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor. I turned around and looked at her from the top of the stairs on the second floor.

She was wearing a strapless dress. The top half was black satin. The fluffy material at the bottom was red and white…tulle? I think that was what it was called. The wide elastic band connecting the two was red and white checkers, perfectly matching my red and white bow-tie. When she blinked I noticed that her eyes were covered in black glittery eye shadow, which surprised me. It was very unusual for her to wear makeup. She sported no jewelry, and I recalled her once telling me how much she hated both jewelry and make up. As I glanced down, I noticed that she wore her omnipresent red Converse. I think

I'd be surprised if they weren't super-glued to her feet. I admired her rebellious streak, but simultaneously thought that the restaurant would not approve.

I cracked up laughing. _How does Kaoru always know these things?_

I walked down the stairs and held out my arm. She gracefully accepted it, and then ran out the door. She arrived at the car in a flash, while I was still stuck inside, holding my arm out like a fool, trying to figure out how she got outside so fast.

"You coming or what?" she asked, sliding into the car door.

"So, where are we going?"

"…Olive Garden-"

"YES! MY FAVORITE!" She swung her feet in a childish manner. "Are we there yet?"

"We just got in the car…"

"Are we there yet?"

"Are you going to be doing this the whole way there?"

"Only if it annoys you."

A few minutes later, we arrived. I held the door open for her, silently giving thanks for being a Host. If anyone knew how to charm a girl, it was a Host. I took her hand to help her up, but she was lighter than I thought. I accidentally pulled her right out of the car! She tripped on the curb and ended up crashing into me.

I felt her warm, petite torso hit mine. I could smell her perfume; it was very sweet. Her blonde hair tickled my nose and her glasses hit my neck. I put my arms on the small of her back, steadying her, and then, to my surprise, pulling her away. I would have thought that she would have pulled away first…I shut the car door and said to the hostess, "Reservation for two, under 'Hitachiin,' please."

"Right this way, sir."

She sat us down at a dimly lit table for two.

"I'll never understand why they do this!" Laura exclaimed, pointing to the light coming from the ceiling. "I mean, it's a huge franchise, you'd think they could afford the electricity to properly light their restaurant!"

I laughed. Typical Laura.

We made small talk while waiting for our food to be served. While we were eating, I pulled out a small black box from the innards of my coat.

Laura gasped, and chocked on her Ziti al Forno. She gulped some water to regain control of her airway.

"Hikaru Hitachiin, you are NOT proposing to me!"

"N-no! I'm not! But, jeez, you'd reject me? A Hitachiin?" I winked coyly. I opened the box for her, and inside was not a silver ring, but instead a beautiful pair of diamond earrings.

She gasped, speechless.

"Here, let me put them in for you," I proffered.

A few minutes later, we both reached a realization: I had absolutely no idea how to put earrings in. I gave up and let Laura do it, deciding that she knew more about earrings than I did.

"They look gorgeous," she said, catching her distorted reflection in a wine bottle.

I gulped, "Not as gorgeous as you," and then leaned in for a kiss.

She returned it, with warm lips. They were chapped, but not all sticky from lip gloss or anything.

"Damn you, Hikaru!" she suddenly pulled back.

"W-what?"

"I'm only supposed to kiss you if I lose the bet! Which I WON'T!" She rubbed my lips with the palm of her right hand. "Now give me that kiss back! I demand it back!"

"You can't get kisses back! There's no such thing!"

"Then let's go! I'm going to win that bet NOW." She picked up her jacket and purse, and stormed out of the restaurant.

_This woman is going to be the death of me…but I love her…_

We drove home in silence. Laura stared out the window. As we approached the mansion, Laura jumped out of the car before it was parked and sprinted into the mansion, finding a surprised Kaoru and Kendall.

"Kendall?" Laura asked incredulously at the same time that Kendall asked "Laura?"

"What are you doing here?" they both asked at the same time.

"Well, Hikaru made a bet-"

"Well, Kaoru said since-" the girls both said at the same time.

"You first," they naturally both said.

*3rd Person POV*

"ONE, TWO, THREE, JELLY LEGS JINX WITH A BOTTLE OF ROOT BEER AND SANTA CLAUS KILLS JOHNNY DEPP!" They then pointed an index finger at each other and then paced in a circle, cowboy shoot-out-style. Afterwards, Kendall and Laura collapsed on the ground echoing in gales of laughter.

Both boys leaned concernedly over them. "Should we be worried?"

"N-no," Laura somehow stated.

It was an old chant that the girls had created in high school, used whenever they both wanted to talk at the same time. At first, whoever completed the chant first would talk first, but now, after many years of practice, they both said it at equal lightning-fast speeds, and whoever pulled themselves back together and stopped laughing first talked first. Kendall won this round.

"Well, since you and Hikaru were gone, Kaoru invited me over," Kendall simply said.

Laura's story was a bit longer, and she explained the bet they had made. "Can I talk to you outside?" she asked Kendall.

Kendall knew that Laura obviously wanted a "girly" moment, so she padded along with her out into the hallway. "What's up?"

"I know how we're gonna win."

"Oh yeah?"

Laura pulled a piece of paper out of her purse. It was a folded, crinkled mess. At the top, in childish handwriting, the paper was adorned: "Ways to Tell Me and Kaoru Apart" and next to it, in smaller, neater handwriting, was "Age 7."

Following the title, was, obviously a list of varying ways to tell the boys apart.

1. Kaoru likes English, and I like Math!

2. Kaoru has neater handwriting.

3. Kaoru's voice is kinda high, and mine is a little lower.

4. Kaoru is nice and patient and friendly.

5. Hikaru is gentle but loud.

6. Kaoru likes orange, I like blue.

7. Kaoru parts his hair on the left to the right, and I part mine on the right to the left.

8. Kaoru likes to stand on the right, and I like to stand on the left.

Laura smiled, tearing up a little bit at the papter. _No one except Haruhi has ever been able to tell them apart…it's all they've ever really wanted…_

"So we use this list and then walk in there? Isn't Hikaru dressed differently anyhow?"

"Yeah…but something tells me they've changed, anyhow," Laura said surreptitiously and walked back into the room.

As she opened the French double doors, her speculations were proved correct. Hikaru and Kaoru were wearing identical black t-shirts and gray sweatpants. Their parts, however, were left untouched and Laura immediately knew which was which.

She approached the two boys, who looked nervous. She took a deep breath, pointed to Kaoru and said,

"This one's Hikaru."

Both boys looked acutely crestfallen. Before they could say anything, Laura switched boys and ran in to Hikaru's arms. "Just kidding, HIKARU," she said.

"I love you," he said. He then snatched the paper from behind Laura's back. "Cheater and all."

**And thus concludes the story of Kaoru, Hikaru, Kendall, and Laura. Thank you so much if you've read this far, have reviewed, or are going to review.**


	19. Engagement Part 1

It was six months later, and both the girls were now engaged to their respective boyfriends.

Kaoru and Kendall had gotten engaged before Hikaru and Laura, because they were more reserved and not as hot-headed.

Now, three months after their engagement, much has changed. But this episode is not about that. This episode entails the details of the happy couple's engagement.

The story thus follows...

It had been three months since Hikaru and Laura had made up and gone to the Olive Garden. Kaoru had invited Kendall over multiple times for various dates, and today was no exception. However, Kaoru had been a slight bit more secretive than usual.

He had picked her up at promptly half past three, as he said he would. He tied a blindfold over Kendall's face in order to keep their destination a secret. She tapped her foot impatiently and made several death threats on the way there. When they finally arrived, Kendall blinked and stretched and then said, "The zoo? We're at the zoo?"

Kaoru blushed, "I thought you would like it."

"I do." She then promptly kissed him on the nose, causing him to turn even more red.

They walked into the entranceway and bought ice slushes. Kaoru purchased a blueberry flavor and Kendall ate a raspberry-flavored one. Both of their tongues turned respectively blue and red.

"Hey, Kaoru," Kendall chided. "Wanna make purple?"

The two created a shade of purple in each others' mouths, right in front of the panda exhibit. They received some strange looks, and not all of them from the panda.

Kendall clutched Kaoru's hand the entire time, and dragged him everywhere: from the penguins (his favorite) to the tigers (her favorite, especially the white one) to the lions (neither of them liked the lion very much). Her excitement and fascination made Kaoru smile. When asked why, he simply said, "I'm just really happy," to which Kendall furiously blushed.

Now, at five-thirty, Kaoru took the lead. He led Kendall to the narwhal exhibit, one that they both found fascinating. They sat on a bench that was placed specifically for viewing narwhals, and observed the fantastic creature swim about in a pseudo-version of its natural habitat.

Suddenly a zoo keeper appeared from next to the habitat. She looked left and right, as if making sure no one else was about. Appearing satisfied, she turned to Kendall and Kaoru and asked, "Would you two like to feed the narwhal?" Her name tag read "Kelly."

"YES!" gushed Kendall, jumping up from the bench.

"Follow me."

The two followed Kelly through a dank hallway that reeked of fish. There was a slight hill and the hallway turned up and left. When Kendall tripped on a slippery step, Kaoru caught her. "Thanks," she said.

"Don't mention it," he said.

When they reached the light at the end of the tunnel, they were standing upon a large platform behind the pool that held the narwhal.

"It's beautiful!" said Kendall. The narwhal swam gracefully throughout the water, occasionally flipping water with its protruding tusk. "What's that on its tusk?"

Kelly and Kaoru all peered at the narwhal. Upon closer inspection, they noticed that it did, in fact, have something silver on its tusk. "Here, I'll call it closer and see what's going on," Kelly said.

Kaoru reached over to the narwhal as it swam close enough to the platform.

"What are you doing?" called Kendall. Then she gasped as she saw that the silver thing on the narwhal's tusk was a ring, and Kaoru was proposing.

He bent down on one knee, dirtying his pants in the narwhal-water. "Kendall, you are the most beautiful, intriguing, inspiring girl I've ever met. Will you marry me?"

"YESSS!" she squealed and hugged him with such force that they both fell into the narwhal tank.

**HermioneK here: Yes, narwhals are real. If you did not know that, or do not know what narwhals are, I am extremely sorry. If you have a PC, please press "CTRL-T" and type "Google . com" into that box and search "narwhal" because you are missing out on some seriously awesome shit. If you have a mac, fuck you because I don't. : P **

**Narwhal history lesson: narwhals were first thought to be unicorns, which is where that myth originates from. The tusk is actually a ten-foot long tooth that grows through their lip. (Yes, folks, I'm being completely serious.) They live in Antarctica and are extremely territorial. **

**None are currently kept in captivity (sorry, my fanfiction is slightly embellished!) because all the ones that have been kept die within a few months. But, hey, maybe Kendall and Kaoru just happened to see one before it died. It is a fanfiction, ne?**


	20. Engagement Part 2

**HermioneK here: Just wanted to say that my twin did me the favor of writing this chapter. Her writing style is quite different from mine, but not in a bad way, so if it seems different to you, that's why!**

**You can find her here: www . alwaysincharacter . deviantart . com**

Hikaru was currently more anxious than he'd ever been in his entire life. Kaoru had just proposed to Kendall a few weeks ago, and judging by how they had both gushed at Hikaru and Laura about the proposal—the brash couple had complained about their friends' lovey-dovey-ness more than once since then—Kaoru had swept Kendall off her feet with it.

How was he, Hikaru, the relationship-challenged one, supposed to compete? More importantly, how was he supposed to sweep Laura off of _her_feet? It would have to be different, obviously. This was one of the few areas where doing the same thing as his twin would get him nowhere. As similar as they were, Kendall and Laura still retained major differences in personality; Hikaru could sense that it would take something unique to impress his girlfriend.

Girlfriend. The word still felt weird in his head, let alone when he spoke it aloud. Attaching the thought of Laura to any word so casual and normal was just strange. But Hikaru shook off this thought, drumming his fingers irritatingly on the desk as he stared off into space.

"Hikaru," Kaoru complained, "stop angsting. Or at least angst quieter." Even if his twin didn't know exactly what was going on in his head, Hikaru knew that he could never hide his irritation from Kaoru. And Kaoru knew that Hikaru could sense the care behind the reprimand.

"You would be angsting too, if you weren't too busy texting your fiancee," Hikaru retorted, although he stopped the annoying finger-tapping.

Kaoru was caught red-handed—or, more accurately, phone-handed. "Touche." Silence settled over the two of them again, interrupted only by the noise of Kaoru's fingers on the screen, typing to beat the band.

To beat the band.

The band!

"I've got it!"Hikaru shouted, out the door on his way to buy a ring before Kaoru could even ask.

–

"I'm surprised you didn't invite Kendall and Kaoru to join us," Hikaru stated, raising an eyebrow quizzically at his companion as they stood in line.

"Kendall hates soccer," Laura replied with a shrug that sent her curled blonde hair bouncing. "She's a couch potato through and through. Besides, any time away from her and your brother sucking face is more than welcome." Laura was happy for her best friend's engagement and all, but nobody really enjoys watching a makeout session unless they're participating.

Hikaru gave an understanding nod. It wasn't like he had wanted the others there, necessarily—it would have made what he was about to do even more nerve-wracking and awkward.

In what seemed to be a blur, they were inside and sitting in the stands, the game already underway. Hikaru had pulled some strings (being rich was awesome sometimes) and gotten fantastic seats which were right up next to the field, and Laura was enjoying herself immensely. She cheered and flew out of her seat at every goal, eliciting laughter from Hikaru whenever she did. Looking at her, who would expect such a tiny girl to be full of so much crazy energy?

When half-time came, Laura sank into her seat with an annoyed sigh. "I hate half-time shows," she grumbled. "It's just a bunch of slutty cheerleaders dancing around stupidly. I'd rather be watching the game."

"I think they have a marching band, too," Hikaru pointed out, resisting the urge to grin like an idiot.

Laura perked up considerably. "Well, then, that's okay." She had been in a marching band for much of her school life, so she felt a certain attachment to them.

However, the half-time show began exactly as Laura had predicted it—scantily-clad girls dancing around with pom-poms and streamers. "What is this, a college football game?" Laura grumped, sulking slightly.

Hikaru couldn't help but snicker. "I dunno, I think one of those uniforms would look great on you." He was rewarded for his humor with a surprisingly sharp slap on the shoulder, nearly making him spill his drink.

"Hikaru Hitachiin, you'd better watch yourself," Laura warned with a glare. Even though he'd apologized and they'd made up over his idiotic attempt at having sex with her, she was still sensitive to anything remotely related to that—and understandably so, in her opinion.

"You know I'm teasing you," he muttered half-sulkily, receiving no response from Laura. The marching band was up now, though, and both the blonde and the redhead perked up in anticipation. Laura threw Hikaru a vaguely suspicious look, but he pretended not to notice.

The song began and Laura gave an excited squeal. "I love this song! I played this back in high school!" Hikaru noticed that her hands immediately moved to the proper position for playing a saxophone, her fingers moving up and down with the notes. She was just so energetic and entertaining all the time. Her occasional goofiness contrasted with her brash behavior was what made her so complex and intriguing to Hikaru.

Then the band began to move into an indiscernible shape on the field, and Laura paused, not recognizing the formation. "Are they making words?" she wondered aloud, looking up at the screen, which gave an aerial view of the band. A moment later, her jaw dropped.

The letters formed by the band spelled out, "Laura, Will You Marry Me? - H" A collective chorus of gasps and 'aww'ing came from the crowd as Laura simply sat, speechless as Hikaru stared intently at her. When she finally turned to look at him, he was down on one knee with a sparkling ring in his hand. "Do I have to say it out loud?" he asked, damning himself mentally when his voice shook with nervousness.

"Hikaru Hitachiin," Laura declared, hands on her hips, "you are the most arrogant, mischievous, cocky, wealthy bastard I have ever met."Hikaru only had a few seconds to look crestfallen before her lips were on his. A second later, she pulled back, looking sternly at him.

"And of course I'll marry you."


End file.
